What Are the Four Keys to True UEM?

A Quick 'UEM Now' Video Interview with Endpoint Management Experts

Adam: So, the nice thing is we're here for this video blog, or as some people call it, a vlog, and we're gonna have a little bit of fun with UEM. Talk about some things in a really short format, and with that, I think this one we're gonna call, "What'cha gonna do 'bout it?" [Picture: Old man sticking out his tongue] Okay, what you gonna do about it? What you gonna do about UEM, okay?

Alan: What you gonna do about it?

Jason: What you gonna about... Okay.

Adam: So, Alan, tell us about... What is UEM?

Alan: UEM. I'm glad you asked that. I love UEM. It's my favorite subject. I mean, UEM. Unified, and then you got Endpoints out there. And it's all about Management. So, you know, that's kinda what I think about UEM— Unified Endpoint Management.

Adam: That's all you've got?

Alan: Well, that's what I learned.

Jason: What’cha gonna do and we want the facts and you give us the acronym, the definition of the acronym?

Adam: Come on, anybody could look that up.

Jason: Really? Come on, man.

Alan: Is there more? Is there more to it than that?

Jason: There's a lot more to it. I mean, it's like an onion. It's the layers of an onion, so let's bring in somebody who can really talk to us about UEM.

Alan: We'll bring him in here.

Jason: Rex, will you come in and kinda help save this vlog for us?

Adam: I don't get it, Alan.

Jason: I don't know. You don't know.

Rex: Layers of an onion.

Jason: Layers of an onion, yes.

Adam: What's going on with UEM?

[Picture: Confused guy]
Rex: Alan did a good job of describing what it is. It's all about unified management. IT's world is more and more complex. There's nothing simple about IT today. You know, there was one point I actually thought that by 2017, we'd all be on 64-bit hardware. That's not true at all. The hardware is totally different.

[Picture: Surprised people]
Adam: Not at all. So how does IT surprise the users? Or do they surprise us?

Rex: Well, our users are more demanding. We have higher expectations. There's more types of devices. There's more challenges and the security risks are greater than they've ever been.

Adam: So, when you're trying to focus on something, what happens?

Rex: Well, there's only one thing you can really focus on. That's our users. We've gotta keep that focus on what really matters. Our businesses require that our users be productive and that they can really go forward and do those things that they need to do.

Rex: Well, you know, focus... In IT, the squirrels are everyplace. We're always worrying about them.

Adam: Alan is a squirrel, right?

Rex: No, squirrels are all kinds of things, but focus is our users. That, they need to do.

Adam: So, IT has a lot of squirrels, right?

Rex: IT has a lot of squirrels.

Jason: A lot of squirrels. But with that, you brought in the users. That's a good starting point. Our users have really changed. And it's not where work gets done anymore. Work is getting done everywhere. It's no longer a nine-to-five job for anybody. We're doing work at Starbucks. We're doing work but when I'm doing work on these portable devices, my security has gone out the door. I have all this data on all these rogue devices.

[Picture: Man’s foot kicking can]
Adam: Okay, security is really important, but there are other issues that IT has as well. You just can't kick those down the road, because then it really causes some problems.

[Picture: Neighborhood pool]
Rex: If we don't take care of the users and empower the users, we call it Shadow IT, the user's gonna take care of it. So the first step is really knowing what's in our environment. We've gotta have that complete vision of what's in our network, in our watch, just like a neighborhood. We have neighborhood watch programs because we wanna know everything that goes on in that neighborhood. We want to be able to actually have that vision that we know what's going on, every device type.

[Picture: Man looking through blinds]
Adam: Is this the way we do...neighborhood watch here?

Rex: You don't want to look out and be scared.

Adam: Okay.

Rex: Because IT, you don't want to look out at your users and go, "Whoa."

Adam: What are they doing?

Rex: Rogue devices, new software, new services, shadow IT... Shadow IT is a term we did for IT being scared of what they've found. That's not how you can operate in this time.

[Picture: Windows 10 logo]
Jason: Well Windows—Windows is changing the game on us. Windows 10 is coming up.

Rex: Every six months, I get a new operating system with new settings.

Jason: And as an IT guy, that is a little bit scary to me...is having to manage and maintain this whole thing, but then you introduce these users. I'm not a Windows 10 fan. I wanna play on my Mac.

[Picture: Woman with giant cell phone]
Adam: So, what kind of device is this? Because it's looking like a big problem to me.

Jason: This device...is it...it's the latest iPhone. No, in reality...

Adam: Plus, the plus version.

Jason: The plus model, right. In reality, it is...mobility is the elephant in the room. It's this giant problem that we have to get around, and it makes our environment and our view of our environment, it changes that whole perspective.

Adam: Right. So, we need a bigger view.

[Picture: Man looking out window across city]
Rex: We have to have a single-pane of glass look. We need to be able to survey, look across my enterprise, know what's there, know I've got it configured and know I have it secure. [Picture: Chess pieces] Strategically as IT, we have to realize it's every device anywhere, always managed and always secured. We have to make those strategic decisions and partnerships to enable us to go forward. The path that we have to head down is really significantly different than it was in the past.

[Picture: People on modern bridge]
Adam: It's kinda the bridge to the future too, we’re kinda building that, right?

Rex: It's the digital transformation. If we're not enabling our users, that's what people label as the digital transformation. When we go from the department of no to the department of yes, we've built that bridge to empower and enable our users.

[Picture: Kid with head against chalkboard full of math equations]

Adam: Now this is how I used to feel in math class.

Jason: That's how IT used to feel, too. We used to feel that we were alone in IT, that we were isolated from the world, we were stuck down in the basement, down in the recesses of the building, you know, just us and our stapler and hanging out there, you know.

[Picture: Two kids pointing to math chalkboard]
Rex: Those partnerships are critical to being able to solve the hard problems. So being able to partner, being able to get the right people, to help you solve the problem at the right time. It's the vision we have to have, the knowledge and insights we need into our enterprise. Not only is it single-pane of glass, but it's the reporting the deep-level business dashboards that we need to build and know where to go and take action.

[Picture: Women looking through ophthalmology device]
Adam: Is this better or is this better, right? Do you see better out of the left or right?

Rex: That's right.

Jason: It allows us to win. At the end of the day, the game is to win the game.

[Picture: Kid winning go-cart race]
Adam: Even small wins.

Jason: Even small wins, little wins. And to win, we have to win together as a team. We can no longer just be IT sitting in the corner.

Adam: Let's just summarize some of the things we've talked about with UEM. First of all, it has to be user-focused, right?

[Summary slides]
Rex: Absolutely. Our users are the whole... They're the main focus.

Adam: So, making sure we're managing everything. We're not just managing one OS and then giving some peripheral look to the other ones. We're also managing everything, right?

Rex: Every little thing.

Adam: Even managing servers, right? We didn't mention that, but we can do all of those things.

Jason: It's every device, but more importantly, every user that's touching a device.

Adam: Gotcha.

Rex: Anywhere.

Adam: And then you have to have a single view into all of your environment, but you also have to have interconnected workflow, so that when you apply it to one device, it applies to all the devices, right?

Rex: That's right. I'm more interested to deploy things to the user, not to this device, that device, to that device. I want to enable and empower the user. Single workflow, totally integrated, single view, and that's how we actually transform and enable users.

Adam: If you're not doing that, you're not “true” UEM, right?

Rex: That's correct.

Adam: Or as Alan would say, "Real UEM."

Rex: Real UEM.

Adam: Yeah.

Jason: Real UEM.

Adam: Very good. And finally, really, the goal is to provision this type of digital transformation for your whole environment or organization.

Rex: We want to able to discover, take actions and have those insights so everybody knows what they have, how it's set, can set it, what it needs and take those actions. Those insights are what make digital transformation.

Adam: Awesome. Well, thanks, everybody, for joining us for this video blog, this vlog, on UEM. We appreciate it and make it a great day.